The Disturning Truth About How We Treat Our Pubic Hair

In this mostly (except for one hysterically non-correct presidential wannabe) politically correct world, abuse of any kind is considered unacceptable. An alert (and most likely having nothing better to do) reader has sent Life in the Boomer Lane an article about the latest form of abuse: pubic hair. Or, more specifically, how women injure themselves when ridding themselves of pubic hair. Or even more specifically, how pubic hair and its removal can be used as an explanation of both gender and racial inequality, as well as all the current evils of the world.

LBL, being of an age when most people came into adulthood with as much hair (pubic and otherwise) as they could muster, can attest to the hairless trend not being in fashion during the 60s and 70s. The only women who did shave were prostitutes (to show they were lice-free) and stars of x-rated films (to portray themselves as childlike and submissive). Real women kept themselves tidy but that was it. LBL’s own daughter learned early on to shriek whenever LBL deigned to don a swimsuit with some unruliness poking out of the crotch area.

By the 90s, the hair-free look was popular, although Playboy didn’t show its first hairless wonder until less than 10 years ago. Now, all Playboy models are hair-free, as are real women of all ages. What’s interesting is that YouGov found that only 56% of women age 18-29 believe they should remove their pubic hair, but 72% of them do it anyway.

The result of all this lathering and scraping may be exciting for many in the privacy of the bedroom, but it’s also the reason that more and more women are streaming into the ER with lacerations of their unmentionable parts.

According to Mona Chalabi (actual last name, not intended as a pun) in an article titled The Disturbing Truth About How We Treat Our Pubic Hair, “When you start to scratch at the reasons why women do this (and with ingrowing hairs, you will be scratching) the answer isn’t pretty. We’ve been trained to hide the fact that we’ve gone through puberty. Being considered feminine is about remaining a girl – not speaking too low, not being too tall, not being too shapely and of course not being too damn hairy.”

Incendiary words, indeed, especially during this era of women’s rights. If femininity means being childlike, masculinity means the opposite. Men are allowed to sprout hair all over the place and, in later life, usually do. What they may lose on their heads they more than make up for in their noses and ears.

Chalabi also believes that being hairless is a “white standard of beauty,” difficult to attain for other ethnic groups. But that’s the stuff of another post.

There’s bright news ahead: For those of you out there who have been hacking away with razors all these years, at a certain point, aging is in your favor. LBL won’t name the women she knows who have reached an age in with their pubic areas have become totally hair-free, but there are a lot. And, it’s a shame. These women don’t wear swimsuits anymore, but, if they did, they wouldn’t have to worry about tidying up first, before putting the suit on. Their daughters would be so proud.

OMG. I laughed out loud! 1st time one of my girls told me she was getting waxed “down there” I think I screamed “WHY?” at her. I still don’t get it. It’s a generational thing, but it seems like feminist regression. Kind of like when they all wore stilletos, even with jeans.

“What’s interesting is that YouGov found that only 56% of women age 18-29 believe they should remove their pubic hair, but 72% of them do it anyway.” What is interesting to me is that someone was interested enough in this to do a survey. Why?

If researchers didn’t spend their days engaged in discovering the obvious or in covering obscure topics that mankind could probably continue survive without knowing, I’d have to spend my time on this blog only writing about Donald Trump and sensible shoes. I’d probably put myself to sleep mighty fast.

In the 60’s & 70’s it was kinda of about how hairy women could get with Women’s Lib and all… I had quite a few friends who went “European” (at the time…) and stopped shaving their legs and pits. Some of them still don’t.

Not having daughters and being blissfully unaware of the contents of Playboy and the like, I was unaware of this trend until like 10 years ago. It puzzled me then and it still puzzles me. Like Ammaponders, it seems incredibly regressive. And we wonder why there seems to be a resurgence of sexism towards women….

I remember those hairy days, well. Although I am happy now that most women aged into shaving their armpits and legs, I do miss the look of guys with long hair. And I certainly agree that women have taken a step back, lately, in their fight for equality.

You are seriously funny. And, speaking of your response to Wikipedia’s explanation of Women’s Lib, I am always blown away, decades later, to read anything about actual events I lived through. I wonder if I was there, because the narration is so different from my experience. I shriek silently, then head for the refrigerator.

There is also a move for manscaping which involves hair removal for men too. I’m not sure what this current generation has about hair but they spend a lot of time and money on it. Grooming on the top and shaving, plucking or waxing all the rest off.

I decided to pass on mentioning the manscaping thing. I wasn’t even aware of it until I did some research for the post. I’ll admit to being a total sexist, where personal grooming is concerned. I accept that women spend a fair amount of time on their hair, nails, etc. But I think that men doing that is strange.

The rationale I get- from those under 40- is that it makes wearing a bathing suit risk free. Not sure what all the women in the colder areas of the world claim. I`m still trying to figure out a way to tame the mane growing on my toes.

lol great post. What’s creepy I think is the looks of other women when they ask you how you remove it all, and you tell ’em you don’t. Like you spend all that on things that sting, hurt, cut, burn, cause infection and literally pluck hair from your most sensitive flesh and I’m the crazy one?

My daughter was surprised that I did not shave my pubic hair and was telling me that I should clean up the area or at least trim it if I was to be expose it in public. I had asked her about it since I was at a nude beach and everyone was shaved except for me. I was the only baby boomer there so that could explain why. I am pretty sure that most women my age do not shave down there but my daughter is pretty sure they. I was trying to find some stats on baby boomers and shaving pubic hair. I didn’t realize that not shaving was looked down on by this generation because they think it shows a lack of body care. My daughter says many women are having laser treatments to permanently remove their pubic hair. In my day men were attracted by pubic hair not repulsed by it.

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